Going to Uni with a BTEC, please share your stories.

[minkah]

I'd like to have a broader sense of what people study at btec and what they do with it, any and all sharing very much appreciated. Currently I'm only familiar with world of GCSEs and A levels.

Meant to say friend who is in her 50's. Don't take that as definite, nowhere can I see anything to actually back that up but she responded as soon as I said the name. Everything I've seen suggests it is a new thing.

What I'm finding interesting is its the colleges with better reputations that are switching here. I'm off to an open day in a couple of weeks time and am going to ask the staff why they have switched. Will happily report back if it helps.

Right I called the College. Friend is right, they have been brought back. They are in response to the Wolf report which recommended changes. The boards running BTECs reacted very quickly and have added Controlled Assessments under exam conditions that the College felt are very hard compated to A levels and it was a bit of a knee jerk reaction.

The Cambridge Technicals are much more focused on acquire practical skills. They see it as a very positive thing and the feedback from the students are that the very pleased with how things are going.

my DS is looking at a level 3 BTEC in Construction and the built environment. The tutor on his course said 1/2 students went to university ( only BATH wont accept them for Architecture ) and 1/2 onto apprenticeships alongside HNCs.

He is looking at a career in constitution/ engineering project management ..so BTEC would suit him.

sugarplumtree you were very quick to get to the bottom of it! Thankyou for that info.

So the OCR course is continuous assessment, then. With it being a very practical course, this could mean what was mentioned above, that those choosing this route struggle at Uni level, with the analytical side of the work.

Although I'm not sure how applicable the comment about struggle would be for creative media studies. Perhaps the proof of the pudding is always in the end result for creative practical subjects like this one.

So the better colleges are switching! To protect their students from knee jerk reactions! Very very useful info, thankyou.

No worries Minkah. I was lucky and got through to someone helpful first go.

One thing I can say is that I'm glad DD3 did her BTEC before controlled assessments came in if that's the case. She partly chose the BTEC route as it didn't have exams or controlled assessments as they always threw her. However although she was worried about an end of year exam at uni she was fine and passed it.

The other college we went to recently still do the BTEC and made no mention of controlled assessments ' they said it is all course work. So can't help wondering who is right. BTEC college have reputation of being not the most organised though.

The BTEC lecturers at my daughter's old college said the 2013 intake were the last to have no exams/controlled assessments and there would be some for the 2014 intake (course completion 2016).

That would mean my son's BTEC just started will have these but nothing has been mentioned. It doesn't worry him as he doesn't mind exams. It wouldn't have suited my daughter though.

This explains a bit about what the assessments are depending on the BTEC followed

Wrong link - sorry
Pg 4 of this tells you which ones are affected. Its QCF and NVF BTEC firsts and nationals starting this september as far as I can make out